Features a great profile of ING Direct USA and CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann...

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Product Description

Meet the innovators and upstarts who are inventing the future of business. Their unconventional ideas and groundbreaking strategies can become your business plan for the twenty-first century—a better way to lead, compete, and succeed.

Business as usual is a bust. In industry after indus-try, the old guard is cutting back and losing ground. Meanwhile, organizations that were once dismissed as upstarts, as wildcards—or mavericks—are making waves and growing fast. There is a reason: In an age of hypercompetition and nonstop innovation, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something truly original.

That's the lesson behind the companies, executives, and entrepreneurs you'll meet in Mavericks at Work.They are winning big in business by rethinking the logic of how business gets done. They have devised exciting new answers to the timeless challenges facing organizations of every size and leaders in every field: how you make strategy, how you unleash new ideas, how you connect with customers, how your best people achieve great results.

Who are these mavericks? They are break-the-mold business units inside giants such as IBM and Procter & Gamble, as well as high-profile innovators such as HBO and Pixar. They are Internet banks and gold mines, fashion retailers and advertising agencies, funky sandwich shops and hard-charging computer programmers. Together, they are creating an inspiring agenda that every business can put to work.

Their success demonstrates that:

• Being different makes all the difference
• Sharing values beats selling value
• The company with the smartest customers wins
• Nobody is as smart as everybody
• Character counts for as much as credentials
• Great leaders are insatiable learners

Whether you're a young professional setting out on your career, a senior executive looking to make your organization grow, or an entrepreneur building a company from scratch, Mavericks at Work will help you think bigger, aim higher, and win more decisively.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168005 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Released on: 2006-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A collection of case studies featuring the same formulaic ebullience endemic to business books since blurber Tom Peters' seminal work In Search of Excellence, this reader from FastCompany magazine cofounder Taylor and influential business writer LaBarre profiles some of the more interesting companies doing business today: Cirque de Soleil, Commerce Bank, Pixar, Anthropologie, Southwest Airlines, Jones Soda, Apple Computer and Craigslist among them. Such companies may have disparate cultures, but what unites them is originality, self-knowledge and passion. Whether by remaining small, recruiting zealously, or functioning like a kind of cult, such businesses succeed by imbuing the corporate rank and file with an entrepreneur's vision, avoiding the twin vices of mediocrity and complacency. Conversational but rigorous, Taylor and Labarre's chipper exploration of imagination at work holds value for novice and journeyman business leaders.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Although the title sounds like a self-help guide to the dysfunctionally employed, the aim of this book is actually to challenge business leaders to think bigger and aim higher. Those are certainly not new challenges, so what makes this book different from all the others that encourage entrepreneurs to "break the mold"? The authors have identified positive developments in a business environment that is struggling to emerge from slow growth, dashed expectations, and corporate scandal. Although they show how big-name innovators such as HBO, IBM, and Proctor & Gamble are finding new ways to stand out, a new breed is emerging that is proving that smarter can beat bigger. Companies such as Netflix, Google, and craigslist really are reinventing the wheel and have caused the business community to stand up and notice. The authors' vision is that these new innovators, once dismissed as upstarts, hold the key to reinstituting business as a source of inspiration and progress, creating a path for others to follow. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

William C. Taylor is a cofounder and founding editor of Fast Company. During his tenure, the magazine won numerous awards (including two National Magazine Awards) and earned a passionate following among executives and entrepreneurs. He writes the "Under New Management" column for the New York Times and has published essays and CEO interviews in the Harvard Business Review.

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Customer Reviews

Their theory is wrong
There are plenty of people who like to be mavericks, do their own thing, and go against the flow. In other words, they like to be weird and do very unusual things. I have found in my own field that approach usually fails badly. Being in the mainstream and being conventional are what work best most of the time. I disagree with their claim that Google is run by mavericks!!! Google is a very conventional and mainstream business! All they did was create a search engine that simply works better than all the others! What is so unconventional about that? Nothing! When google first was created, there were already many other search engines. Google did not create any new idea there. They simply made a better version of something that already existed. And there is nothing maverick about that! By the way, making better versions of things that already exist is a good way to make money. It really works. What kind of movies make the most money by far? It's the mainstream summer blockbuster movies that make the most money, not the "maverick" art house films. Most things that succeed are conventional, high quality, and give the mainstream what it wants. Things that succeed generally are not unusual, bizarre, weird, or unconventional. Most good ideas have already been thought of. We live in a world of over 6 billion people. So you rarely find a unique new idea that is actually a good idea. Usually, if something is original, it's bizarre and undesirable too, because virtually all the *good* ideas have already been thought of and done.

Right On, Refreshing & Readable!!
This is an extremely readable book full of wisdom. Underlying Polly's book is the eternal but often overlooked truth that the right people make all the difference. The primary role of leaders is to find and nurture bright people. Organizational success depends entirely on great innovative ideas executed brilliantly and loyal customers. Customers and employees and suppliers and all stake holders even critics need to feel valued and touched. Based on my extensive experience in leadership development, most organizations instead waste a lot of time on internal politics and bureaucratic, self serving matters.

As the economy faces new hurdles, Polly's nuggets are more valid than ever.
Deepak / Dick Sethi
CEO Organic Leadership

Great Book - Take Notes!
This book is one of those books where you want to keep a notepad or highlighter marker close at hand. While not every company will rise to the levels of those highlighted in this book, there is much to be gained by readers who are willing to take a fresh look at how to do business in today's marketplace.